| Tuesday,
October 20, 2009 File under you've got to
be kidding ...
Fifth Circuit grants Katrina victims standing in
global warming class action suit via US Legal News - JURIST by on 10/20/09
[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
[official website] has ruled [opinion, PDF] that 14 victims of Hurricane
Katrina [JURIST news archive] have standing to sue companies for allegedly
contributing to global warming [JURIST news archive], which they claim
played a role in increasing the severity of the hurricane. The court found
Friday that the plaintiffs had presented enough
http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/
2009/10/fifth-circuit-grants-katrina-victims.php
Bill Shields
Incredible
=============
Scrivener
Jerry,
I've seen you comment on Scrivener more than once and
I read this at Macworld.com this morning. Thought you may be interested -
looks like a fairly long trial deal and some discounts
cheers....
rh
http://www.literatureandlatte.com/
nanowrimo.html
Richard Hakala
My experience with Scrivener is that if I worked
solo and liked having complex project creation tools, I would like this;
but in fact I find that OneNote or some such plus a good text creation
editor that does spell checking and autocorrecting of the many typing
mistakes I make is all I need. My habits are pretty firmly in place now.
That is not to say that I don't recommend those
still looking for tools to try Scrivener. I know several successful
writers who use it. I do point that if you do much collaborative writing,
you'll want to talk this over with your partners.
=============
Fake 'Conficker.B Infection Alert' spam campaign
drops scareware
Whereas the theme remains the same, the botnet masters
have slightly modified the message:
“Dear Microsoft Customer,
Starting 18/10/2009 the ‘Conficker’ worm began
infecting Microsoft customers unusually rapidly. Microsoft has been
advised by your Internet provider that your network is infected. To
counteract further spread we advise removing the infection using an
antispyware program. We are supplying all effected Windows Users with a
free system scan in order to clean any files infected by the virus.
Please install attached file to start the scan. The
process takes under a minute and will prevent your files from being
compromised. We appreciate your prompt cooperation.
Regards, Microsoft Windows Agent #2 (Hollis)
Microsoft Windows Computer Safety Division”
The use of email as propagation vector for scareware
campaigns (The ultimate guide to scareware protection <http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=4297>
), and in particular the use of email attachments is an uncommon practice,
compared to the single most effective way of hijacking traffic through
blackhat search engine optimization where the cybercriminals rely on
real-time news events.
The campaign is an example of a — thankfully - badly
executed one in the sense that with Microsoft’s Security Essentials recently
gained momentum <http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=4512>
, even the average Internet user would notice the suspicious timing of the
offered “antispyware program”.
Tracy Walters, CISSP
As always, be careful out there.
==============
Microsoft Security Essentials - Week One -
Full story:
http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/
archive/2009/10/15/microsoft-security
-essentials-week-one.aspx
Microsoft Security Essentials – Week One
Now that Microsoft Security Essentials <http://www.microsoft.com/Security_Essentials/>
is generally available to consumers in 19 countries, we've had a chance to
go over the data, and there are some very interesting results. Just in the
first week we saw well over 1.5 million downloads of Microsoft Security
Essentials, but the price (free to Windows users) is hard to beat!
Computers reporting detections up to October 6:
almost four million detections on 535,752 distinct machines. The
detections are eight times the machine count because many computers are
infected with multiple threats.
Microsoft Security Essentials is available in 8
languages and 19 markets at RTM, which covers a lot of the PC using world.
The geographic distribution of detections so far still closely follows the
Microsoft Security Essentials Beta countries, and is ramping up in other
countries that use the 8 languages.
http://www.microsoft.com/security/
portal/blog-images/msetelm3.png
Looking at counts of computers reporting detections
by threat categories, we see that the order is different in each of the
top three countries. Trojans are the top detected category in the US,
China has lots of potentially unwanted software threats, and worms
(particularly Conficker) are very active in Brazil. There are also many
exploits being encountered in China, which may mean these PCs do not have
the latest security updates.
…
Tracy Walters, CISSP
==========
KUSC Pledge Drive
Jerry,
You wrote:
"Anyway, this is one of those nagging reminders. I
won't spend as much time on that as KUSC does every ten minutes. You have
been nagged. Thanks to all those who have recently subscribed or renewed."
It wouldn't be a bother with a nag every 10 days or
once a month. I have you in my queue to resubscribe in January.
I like having you around on the web. You bring a note
of sanity in these "Crazy Years."
Charles Adams, Bellevue, NE
Thanks
===========
Medical records sent for
computerisation to India up for sale
I can't believe this would surprise anyone because I
have been expecting to see this sort of thing since data started getting
shipped offshore. Of note, I believe the RNC and DNC offshored their member
databases some years ago.
-LJK
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/
news/politics/nation/
Medical-records-sent-for-computerisation-to-India
-up-for-sale/articleshow/5137528.cms
Medical records sent for computerisation to India up
for sale 19 October 2009 The Economic Times English (c) 2009 The Times of
India Group. All rights reserved.
NEW DELHI: In a development that is certain to lead
to a hardening of stance on the outsourcing industry by the western world,
investigations conducted by a British TV channel have come up with the
stunning revelation that confidential medical records sent to India for
computerisation are being offered for sale, triggering heightened concerns
about breach of data security here.
The revelation has forced police of the two
countries to join hands to launch an official investigation into the data
pilferage of the records stored by the Indian BPOs. If found true, the
allegations could hit the flourishing BPO sector in India hard, fuelling
doubts about their integrity and efficiency.
There is already a substantial public opinion
building in the western world about the viability of outsourcing jobs to
the developing countries, primarily India. In the run-up to the
presidential election in the US, Barack Obama had advocated lifting of tax
breaks to the American companies who ship jobs abroad.
The health records-for-sale investigation is
scheduled to be broadcast on ITV on its Tonight programme on Monday.
Sall Anne Poole, head of investigations at the
Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), confirmed that an official probe
had been launched to get to the bottom of things. "We are very concerned
that private patients' medical records are on sale in India. The ICO will
establish the full facts and will then decide what action, if any, needs
to be taken. Medical records are sensitive personal information and must
be held securely," she said.
The modus-operandi employed to procure the records
was simple. Chris Rogers, the programme's presenter, contacted two Indian
salesmen through an internet chat room, and posed as a marketing executive
keen on buying medical records to sell insurance and medicines.
Rogers bought 116 files with detailed medical
records of British patients , from the two salesmen, whom the programme
named as Jayesh Bagchandnani and Kunal Gargatti, the Daily Mail, a
prominent British tabloid, reported on Sunday.
Bagchandnani reportedly said they came from staff at
an Indian 'transcription' centre where medical records are computerised.
Bagchandnani told Rogers: "We can do really good business with these
leads. These leads will give you diagnose, entire diagnose of all the
India's top 10 BPO customers, what the customer is facing. There are 17
teams or you can say team managers. The floor managers, they are working
as freelancers for me and I am telling them to pull the data for me. They
work for me."
Researchers for the programme then met Gargatti, in
Mumbai. "You have the doctor's name, doctor's address, doctor's phone
number. Each and every thing here. I have 30,000 files to give you today,
right now. I've around 140 diseases here. You just tell me which disease
you're looking out for - I can give you anything ," he told them.
The files procured were of patients of London
Clinic, one of Britain's top private hospitals. Several hospitals in the
National Health Service have also outsourced their transcription to India,
sparking concern over data safety following the latest investigation.
The London Clinic said it dealt with its own files
internally and did not send them to private companies. But it advised a
group of consultants to use a specialist Buckingham-based IT company, DGL
Information Technologies UK, with which the clinic has a contract, to help
turn paper records into computerised files.
DGL itself did not handle the records but
recommended that the doctors use a document-scanning service provided by a
company it has a contract with, Scanning And Data Solutions, which
operates from Hertfordshire.
But Scanning And Data Solutions then sub-contracted
further work on the files to a company in Pune. Scanning And Data
Solutions admitted it had sent thousands of medical records to India over
the past two years and said it 'had no reason to disbelieve' that it had
scanned the records obtained by ITV in India.
It has now suspended its operations there and
requested that its partners delete all the information they hold. It has
told both Hertfordshire Police and the Indian police of the theft.
DATA PILFERAGE
The revelation has forced police of the two
countries to launch an investigation into the data pilferage of the
records stored by the Indian BPOs 'We are concerned that private patients'
medical records are on sale in India.
The ICO will establish the full facts and will then
decide what action, if any, needs to be taken. Medical records are
sensitive personal information and must be held securely,' Poole said
There is a substantial public opinion building in the western world
against outsourcing
I am shocked, shocked...
============
Resuming the health
care discussion (end health care discussion)
problems with the Swiss system
The key phrases I see in the Swiss health care system
article you linked to today are:
1. The government proscribes what the policies will
cover
2. the government sets the prices
Ye Gods! Of course it will eventually collapse.
Phil
It depends on the republic; some may be capable
of self-discipline. Most are not. The Venetians lasted a long time, but
they had a very complicated government structure built on the principle
that no one was ever entirely trustworthy, and inefficiency was part of
the price of freedom. But a bureaucracy of inquisitors and assassins kept
in check by committees and councils makes for a very complex structure.
Anyway they were unable to defend themselves against Napoleon carrying
Liberty and Equality across Europe on the bayonets f French soldiers.
==
Subject: A health care discussion
> The reason costs go up for public healthcare
is that the "minimum"
> advances to keep pace with the latest developments, no matter how
> expensive.
It's a lot simpler than that. The health industry is
capitalistic, and as for-profit corporations with investors they would be
culpably negligent not to have a range of offerings at price points 1%, 2%,
5%, 10% (and more!) beyond the current budget. To date, they have certainly
satisfied their duty to their investors.
This fact, plus a little time examining the results of
compounded growth, should tell you that at some point, you MUST decline to
purchase something on their price list. And there will be human faces to go
with that decision.
You can say that health care is a public service, and
then have a panel make that decision. Or you can keep health insurance
private, and keep raising the price until enough people have dropped off
that you can afford to provide almost everything to those who are still with
you (and the math says that this process must continue perpetually). In
either case you will have a long and sad list of people who were not
treated. So far as I can tell, this unhappy list must exist, and all we can
try to do is make this list as sensible as possible.
Regarding actual payment, the article in The Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200909/health-care
is the most coherent description I've read for how
capitalism might be reintroduced into health care.
Regards, Andy Valencia
==
Canada and the Iron Law
"The great transformation, in Canada as throughout
the west since the Second World War, has been from the old arrangement in
which a relatively small civil service served the people, under the
direction of their elected government, to the new one in which the people
exist chiefly to serve a civil service grown vastly too large for elected
officials to oversee." -- David Warren
http://www.davidwarrenonline.com/index.php?id=1059
It's not so much the nature of the parts as it is the
number, size, and arrangement of those parts. Oxygen and chlorine are
composed of the same parts, but differ in their number and arrangement. It
is the number and arrangement that appear to matter.
Mike
In most western democracies the civil service is
very similar to the old aristocracy, but instead of owning land they own
government jobs, and the appointment is for life, not transferable by
primo-geniture. But you couldn't fire your local Lord and you were well
advised to be respectful... The US was an exception to this for a while,
but is joining the ranks of modern western liberal democracy. It's part of
growing up.
==
: Wall St terrified of health care issue
Dr. Pournelle,
I think Wall street is secretly terrified of the
health care issue… Anyone else charting commodity prices vs. progress
towards the President’s more expensive agendas? It’s a bit late to join in,
but oil, gas, and precious metals are all rising. My worthless amateur guess
is that people with a lot of money are betting heavily on either massive
inflation or a market crash.
Sean
You think?
==
Health care
Dr. Pournelle,
I may be restating what has been said, but part of the
problem with health care costs is that we're in a place that's maybe halfway
to a goal. One hundred years ago, aspirin, appendectomies, and amputations
plus childbirth and the occasional sutured wound were pretty much it.
In about 1950 or so, treatments began to get more
effective--Leukemia was generally considered 6 weeks, 6 months, or 6 years
from diagnosis to death depending on the form--sub-chronic, chronic, or
acute. Diagnosis and treatment were palliative. By the 1970s there were
remissions of enough length to be considered a cure.
In the early 80s, AIDS was a death sentence. By the
'90s, there was a combination of drugs that could at least slow the progress
of the disease and lengthen life by some years. Now, we're approaching the
point where AIDS might be considered a dangerous but chronic condition,
provided one has some means to pay for the treatment.
We couldn't do then what we can do now. If medical
progress continues, in a century or so this debate may well seem quaint,
because autodocs or something similar at the local pharmacy will handle
everything that's in any way routine. Costs will level.
That's a big IF, though. I wonder what health care
'reform' will do to research funding. Even today, physicians who treat
Medicare-eligible patients by using an 'unapproved' drug or procedure will
not be allowed to treat Medicare patients for two years. This is true even
if the patient isn't interested in Medicare or is willing to bet his life
savings on the chance of a cure. (I verified this by asking a physician of
my acquaintance.)
Anyone with the money will leave the country for
treatment in Thailand or some such. I fear the heavy hand of government.
Some years ago there was an article written by a pathologist (Discover
magazine "Vital Signs" column) in which the pathologist told the oncologist
that a patient had hairy-cell leukemia. The oncologist replied, "Oh, thank
God" because an effective experimental chemotherapy had been developed; the
treatment phase lasted about half a month, and most patients were either
'cured' or in very long term remission. The insurance company would not pay
for this treatment, although it would pay for 'standard' chemotherapy--six
months with no real chance of a cure. The hospital had some available funds,
and the patient did recover.
I wonder how likely the government will be to give
approval, and if approval is not given, will the government then give
approval to allow a hospital to use donated funds? Will the government allow
hospitals to receive donated funds? Will anyone have funds to donate after
we've 'shared' with everyone else? I fear the only certainty in this mess is
that we won't have anywhere near the freedom we once had.
On the other hand, this may solve the energy problem.
Just put a pulley on the caskets of the Founding Fathers. They're spinning
in their graves as is.
jomath
==
Health Care Costs
Jerry:
I was at the birthday party of a fellow LASFS member,
and one of the people there mentioned her daughter's experience with health
care costs.
She recently had a baby, by C-section. The incision
got infected, and the doctor wound up prescribing a heavy-duty antibiotic
for it. She took her prescription to the pharmacy, and was told Medicaid
didn't cover that particular antibiotic for superficial injuries. If she
wanted the pills, it would be something like $180.
Well, she didn't -=quite=- faint, nor did she laugh in
the pharmacist's face at the notion that a C-section is a "superficial"
wound. Not quite.
She did go back to her doctor, who discovered that if
he prescribed the same drug, in tablets that were twice the strength, the
price for filling the prescription dropped some 80% -- much easier to manage
out of pocket.
My friend at the party cited this as evidence that we
need a third party, preferably a government one, paying for all prescription
medication.
My comment was a price discrepancy like that is the
kind of thing you see only when the patient doesn't know, or care, what
medicines cost, because a third party pays the bill. I guarantee, if people
had to consider the price of their prescription drugs, you'd see a lot fewer
price discrepancies like that. If the 125 mg tablet costs five times as much
as the 250 mg tablet, I'd buy the 250 mg and use some of my savings on a
pill cutter.
............Karl Lembke
==
Healthcare mandate
Dr. Pournelle,
One aspect of the healthcare sausage currently being
made in Congress is a mandate that everyone _must_ have health insurance,
with a fairly substantial fine for non-compliance. Under what provision of
the Constitution is the federal government empowered to fine citizens for
not purchasing health insurance? Should this not require a constitutional
amendment, as with federal income tax?
Steve Chu
I have always thought that Federal drug laws
require a Constitutional Amendment but no one seems to care. I am not at
all sure how forbidding hashish was part of the Constitution. Or
Marijuana.
==
Noonan On Obama Care
Jerry,
As always, Peggy Noonan is worth reading:
http://online.wsj.com/article/
SB1000142405274870432200457
4475551644400192.html
Best Regards,
Mark E. Horning, Physicist,
Agreed
==
Government payscales for doctors?
Jerry
Government pay scales for doctors? Well, the gov't
already does that - augmented with bonuses to make the salaries attractive:
back when I was a gov't doc our salaries could not be higher than that of
Congress critters - without the free flights, free food at Congressional
cafeterias, etc. But the general principle is the same.
But go'vt docs work 40 hours a week, not the 80 hours
that private practice docs do. Overall, docs work 60 hours a week, so if
they all go on salary we effectively lose one third of our doctor time.
Then there is the fact that clinics and offices will
have to be paid-for by the gov't. Docs pay for them now, for the most part.
So simple, yes? Of course the politicians would decide
when you need a new clinic, eh?
Ed
==
To Jerry Pournelle,
You wrote: "But one reason health care costs so much
is this business of the last two years of life. If we could eliminate those
two years we would no longer be spending more than others."
It's true that the last years are the most expensive,
but I know of no civilized country, especially those with socialized
medicine, where care are withheld for the dying or elderly. If you want to
compare US health costs to costs in other countries, they both should
include the cost of care in the last years, as no one is really arguing
against it.
Trying to frame the US debate, on the issue of care to
"grandma", seems disingenuous to me.
Regards
Bo Andersen, Denmark.
Does Denmark pay for all costs of end of life:
feeding, respirators, intensive care, etc.? That is the usual way of
limiting last year of life costs: just don't pay for extraordinary
measures (which is sort of the same as assuming that everyone has opted
for DNR). I am not really familiar with the policies of other countries in
such matters, but I do note that their last year of life costs are far
lower than those of the US. I do not know why.
I am also not well qualified to determine what
are and are not "heroic" measures to prolong life, and of those which
ought to be paid for by the public. I went through this before: we are not
talking about the costs to families and estates. It's what the State ought
to pay for that's up for discussion. How many revivals of Aunt Minnie to I
owe her nephew Horace? (We are assuming that Aunt Minnie isn't cogniscent.)
==
Comment on all the
above"
My apologies to all for including so much, but
it's hard to be selective: once we concede that health care is an
entitlement, the implementation becomes very highly complex. Another
reason to go slowly and incrementally, I would think, but apparently that
argument has not been overly persuasive.
The cry seems to be "do something and do it now,
even if it's wrong." Sometimes that's the case: a ship being blown ashore
may drop anchor or raise sails and try to claw off shore; either may work,
either may fail, but doing nothing (or doing both) will inevitably fail.
I think it obvious that we are not in that kind of crisis with healthcare.
==================
Jerry,
Shades of Larry Niven and John Cramer...
http://www.foxnews.com/story
/0,2933,568528,00.html?test=latestnews
Jim
Plausible as any I guess.
One trusted reader comments :
Words fail me
Continuing with its tradition of bringing us news no
other network will touch…
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,568528,00.html
Ron Morse
Me, I'm glad they do such stories. Of course I'm
a Niven fan... (And do note that the story first appeared in the New York
Times)
For a PDF copy of A Step Farther Out:
TOP
CURRENT
VIEW Tuesday |
